Map · Chinese
Hua yi tu (Map of China and the Barbarians), stone stele of 1136 at Xi’an: 20th-century rubbing at LOC
華夷圖
anonymous (Song), stele carved 1136
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
retrospective compilation: Song map derived from Jia Dan's Tang-era Hainei Hua yi tu (801), with marginal texts on the foreign peoples of each direction
Research notes
- Rubbing date uncertain (1933?); the stele shares its stone with the Yu ji tu on the reverse. Marginal texts require higher zoom.
- Title 華夷圖 read at top centre; 北/東/西/南 orientation labels; Great Wall drawn along the top.
Why it matters
The earliest surviving Chinese map that frames the northern and western peoples as the Yi beyond the Wall; its margins summarize the states of the north (Liao, Jurchen) as of 1136, a Chinese counterpart to Western Tartary framing.
Places named
China from Korea to the Pamirs and from the Great Wall to the sea; marginal notes on Khitan, Jurchen, Western Regions, Tibet
Who copied whom
Later in the chain
- same work (stated)The two faces of one 1136 stele (Hua yi tu and Yu ji tu)
Keep exploring
The maps drawn just before and just after this one.
